The Clarke family has gone on a sentimentalist’s journey of decluttering. Parents Sarah and Jon, with their three kids—Timeon, 14, Caitlin, 11, and Owen, 9—turned their family home into a peaceful retreat. The process literally multiplied space exponentially. It reduced the stress and chaos of family life, allowing everybody to spend more time in each other’s company.
Sarah, who has shared her plenty of unique crafty ideas, was literally saturated with materials. Yarn, beads and other assorted art supply liberated her imagination. At that time, there were a total of 4,017 toys and 1,211 books in their home, and the clutter had become a stressful day-to-day ordeal. Their home environment quickly grew difficult, since both Sarah and Jon are deaf. They had to learn how to communicate even better, because they were juggling all of that at home.
Each bag Sarah donated represented a deposit of stress and anxiety, and as she decluttered, she began to release these emotions. She said the hardest part was facing her large stash of craft materials. She shared that she uses crafting as a creative outlet to decompress.
“I like making things, it makes me feel good, creativity is therapeutic, it makes me calmer and relaxed.” – Sarah
Sarah’s love of art wasn’t without sacrifice. But now, Owen and Caitlin both sleep in one room. The crafts have such a large footprint that one can’t have their own designated area. This situation weighed heavily on Sarah’s mind.
“I do lots with them but it doesn’t stop the guilt being real.” – Sarah
As the de-cluttering process progressed, Sarah came to understand, through her own example, how her things were affecting relationships between family members. She began to feel bad realizing that her quality time with her kids was being compromised by the chaos in their house.
“Children grow up faster, and my projects will always be there.” – Sarah
Together, and with great resolve, Jon and the children began the slow process of going through Sarah’s crafting supplies. Their encouragement powered every step of the journey. The process required both a physical decluttering and emotional releasing of things that no longer worked for them.
Jon mentioned one of the biggest differences in their family life after decluttering. She recounted her husband’s expressions of awe on the good energy that began to manifest as they removed the clutter from their living space.
“It’s literally changed the dynamic of our family.” – Jon
To save space, the family has all of their crafting supplies compressed into one big crafting cupboard located in the family room. This move allowed Owen and Caitlin to have their own bedrooms for the first time. This had been a personal ambition of their brotherhood from the very beginning.
Timeon agreed with his mom’s feelings on the nostalgic value that many of the things they parted with carried,
“My mum holds everything dear to her heart.” – Timeon
The transformation has enhanced not only her quality of life, but strengthened her family’s relationship with one another. The new space has provided more opportunities to work alongside each other, deepening the bonds of trust and friendship.
As Sarah looked back on her journey through decluttering, she realized how drastically habits had shifted since the beginning. She admitted that a lot of what she was buying before was to try to find those little hits of joy.
“It took me a really long time to realise I was buying stuff to just get the dopamine hit out of it. So much of the stuff I have is ‘oh this will make me happy’ and it did for about 20 minutes.” – Sarah
The decluttering process radically changed Sarah’s life. Today, instead of worrying about building up a collection of things, she focuses on creating memorable experiences that her family will treasure.
